{"id":696295,"date":"2026-05-27T03:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T03:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/696295\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T03:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T03:32:11","slug":"french-open-2026-tennis-adam-walton-beats-daniil-medvedev-at-roland-garros-kim-birrell-upsets-jessica-pegula-interview-video-results-scores-reaction-from-australian-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/696295\/","title":{"rendered":"French Open 2026 tennis: Adam Walton beats Daniil Medvedev at Roland Garros, Kim Birrell upsets Jessica Pegula, interview, video, results scores, reaction from Australian players"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia’s Kimberly Birrell joined little-known compatriot Adam Walton in scoring a seismic upset at the French Open<\/a>, stunning fifth seed Jessica Pegula with a dominant comeback performance at French Open<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the same day Walton pulled off a massive first-round upset – beating sixth seed Daniil Medvedev<\/a> in a gruelling five-set marathon on Court Suzanne-Lenglen – Birrell continued the momentum she’d built during the 2025 season which saw her reach a career high ranking of No.60.<\/p>\n

The unseeded Birrell lost the first set but mounted a comeback to win 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 in two hours and 15 minutes on Court Simonne-Mathieu.<\/p>\n

Watch all the action from Roland-Garros 2026 live and on demand on Stan Sport<\/a>, with centre court in 4K UHD. World class coverage also on 9Gem and streaming on 9Now<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Kim Birrell reacts.\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

Pegula dominated the opening set and broke Birrell’s serve four times to take the first set in just 24 minutes.<\/p>\n

Yet the match swung in the Aussie’s direction at 2-2 in the second, when the Queenslander won five consecutive points, breaking Pegula’s serve.<\/p>\n

She consolidated the break and closed the second set 6-3 and then continued the intensity into the third, dropping just three games.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Sports scientist’s grim fear for Maroons debutant Walker<\/a><\/p>\n

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Pegula’s unforced error count tripled after the opening set, climbing from six to 24 and the slower style on clay suited Birrell as the match wore on.<\/p>\n

“I don’t really know what to say or think. When I saw the draw and saw I was playing Jessie, I knew it would be really tough,” Birrell said.<\/p>\n

“I really admire her as a player and person. I tried to take it one point at a time. I thought she played so well in the first set.<\/p>\n

“My goal was to just win one game and slowly gain some confidence. So happy I was able to play probably the best match I’ve played on clay, and able to play during a grand slam – especially here, it’s really really special.”<\/p>\n

Birrell dedicated the win to her family, who have been battling health issues recently.<\/p>\n

“I’ve already FaceTimed Mum and Dad, they’ve been through a little bit over the last couple of months,” she told Grand Slam Daily’s Chris Stubbs.<\/p>\n

“But they’re doing really well now and yeah, they were able to watch on Stan Sport.<\/p>\n

“It was very easy for them to watch me play, and I don’t think they slept at all because my court went for a long time (with the previous match).<\/p>\n

“They were just waiting for me to get on and I know they played every point with me, so I definitely had them with me tonight.”<\/p>\n

The stunning result came hours after Walton eliminated Medvedev<\/a> in a gruelling five-set marathon.<\/p>\n

The victory sends Walton into the second round of the grand slam after a dramatic 6-2, 1-6, 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 triumph.<\/p>\n

“Such an up-and-down match. I got off to a hot start, I don’t know, I felt like the ebbs and flows of the match were quite large today. Just really proud of my efforts in the fifth set to come from a break down to get the win,” Walton said.<\/p>\n

For the 27-year-old Australian, the victory marks a monumental milestone in his career.<\/p>\n

Ranked No.97, the win against the heavily favoured Medvedev marks his first top-10 scalp.<\/p>\n

Walton revealed a previous encounter against the Russian played a massive role in his mental preparation.<\/p>\n

\"Adam<\/p>\n

Adam Walton celebrates his win over Medvedev. \u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“It’s huge. Beating him in Cincinnati definitely gave me the belief today that I knew I could do it. I believed and (I’m) just really happy with my performance,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I felt he was playing pretty well. (Medvedev) was making a lot of first serves and he was liking my ball, and then I knew I just had to hang tough.<\/p>\n

“I thought the 3-1 game, I faced some break points there and if I (went) down 4-1 double break, it’s going to be pretty tough from there.<\/p>\n

\"Adam<\/p>\n

Adam Walton celebrates one of his career milestones after beating Daniil Medvedev. \u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“Getting that hold definitely just keeping the score close. I knew if I just kept fighting, maybe I would get a chance and I’m glad I did.”<\/p>\n

The match lasted more than three hours in the intense Parisian heat.<\/p>\n

“Yeah, it’s definitely hotter than previous years that I’ve played here, but we grow up in the heat, we like the heat,” Walton said.<\/p>\n

“It makes the ball move faster through the air, which I think helped my game today. So I really like it when it’s hot in Paris.”<\/p>\n

While Walton celebrates his career moment, it was a different story for fellow Australian Alexei Popyrin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Popyrin bowed out in the opening round after a tough four-set battle against America’s Zachary Svajda, falling 6-3, 3-6, 6-7, 5-7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia’s Kimberly Birrell joined little-known compatriot Adam Walton in scoring a seismic upset at the French Open, stunning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-696295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}